Connecting
UN GENEVA: ‘Diploma History Comes Alive’ When teaching DP History at the International School Winterthur (ISW), I want students to be passionate and look at history in new ways. I also want students to deeply understand and be impacted through the awareness that history is not memorizing facts but active investigation, individual conclusion, and defense of such conclusions about the past. Through reading different historical perspectives, conducting research, writing essays and critically analyzing historical sources, students were given such a foundation. Yet, I still wanted to provide more to students. I kept thinking how studied content could be made even more significant and connected to students’ lives in Switzerland. A trip to the League of Nations Museum at UN-Geneva, Switzerland came to mind.
A prescribed history theme students study is Peacemaking, peacekeeping –international relations, 1918-1936. It was very fitting then that students visited and worked with a local community resource of paramount international significance: The League of Nations Museum at UN-Geneva. To achieve this a meaningful activity had to be planned. When thinking of a suitable activity to engage and broaden student practice of history to Diploma standards and capitalize on archival research, the student writing of a source analysis exam (Paper 1) on specific 1918-1936 peacemaking/international relations themes came to mind. Such activity would require students to carefully select historical material of varying complexity and write meaningful questions in the style of Paper 1. In short, the activity would require students to use new skills and act in new roles.
38 Horizons by ISW | January 2013
Instead of being test taker, they would be test maker. They would also work with sources available only at the League of Nations Museum at UN-Geneva. This process would offer new insight and perspective on previous study of the League of Nations. When contacting museum staff about this idea it was received well. A meeting at the League of Nations Museum at UN-Geneva was arranged to transform this idea into a concrete activity meeting Diploma History standards. Museum staff was very helpful in explaining what archival materials could be arranged and what reasonable work could be achieved. They were also very accommodating in making a research room equipped with computers and internet available, arranging a League of Nations Museum tour for additional research, and photocopying original archival material for student use. When the day finally arrived to travel to the League of Nations Museum students were excited and eager to apply and extend their previous knowledge on Peacemaking, peacekeeping-international relations, 1918-1936. Students prepared questions on peacemaking topics that they wanted to learn more about. They toured original rooms where inter-war peace negotiations happened and worked with archives. Solid student understanding of Paper 1 format, group work and student competence and confidence in the topic enabled all to successfully write a mock Paper 1 exam. Student assessment of the field trip was positive and inspiring. They said: “The field trip helped me further understand many concepts that the teacher explained in class: for example the use of historiography or different historical interpretations of the past. I saw this through my teacher and classmates discussing with the League of Nations Museum staff whether the League of Nations failed as an organization or not. –Carolina “I could stayed in the research room for hours if we had the time. It’s a great way of collecting information and to think about the League differently and discuss it.” –Emma